Antichrist will become increasingly prominent. He will allow the Christian institutions to remain as "dead bodies in the street." But these churches and schools will consist of lukewarm, Laodicean "believers." They will have a form of godliness but will deny the Presence and power of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit will be totally absent from their midst even though they name the name of Christ.

Antichrist will viciously persecute the true saints and will also attack the nation of Israel.

And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. (Daniel 11:33)

Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. (Daniel 12:10)

Our understanding of the Scriptures is that the devout of the Jewish people will experience persecution in the days ahead. We believe the Lord Jesus will work through and with the members of His Body in order to help the devout Jewish remnant and provide for their needs and their safety.

The reconciliation of the remnant of Jews with their Christ is portrayed in the fleeing of Israel to Egypt during the famine, at which time Joseph, the prepared deliverer, fed them and provided for them.

It may be recalled that by this time Joseph had married Asenath, an Egyptian, the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of Egypt.

Asenath is an important type of the Gentiles who have been grafted on Israel by being wedded to Christ. Asenath no longer was an Egyptian. She was an inseparable part of Joseph and shared with him his exceedingly great joy as he was recognized as the savior of his family.

Asenath was not an "Egyptian Jew" just as a Gentile who receives Christ is not a "Gentile Christian." Asenath was the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh, two tribes in Israel. Ephraim and Manasseh were not considered to be part Egyptian, part Jewish even though their grandfather was an Egyptian priest. Ephraim and Manasseh were as much Israel as Simeon and Levi and played a major role in the history of Israel.

Whenever a Gentile becomes part of Christ, he or she is not to be regarded as part Gentile, part Israel. Every member of God's elect is thoroughly and totally Israel and shares the Abrahamic inheritance with Christ. There is no such thing as a "Gentile Church."

Asenath was absorbed completely into Israel as an integral part of Israel. Joseph did not assign her a special destiny apart from the rest of the family of Israel.

The division of the elect into Gentiles and Jews, a division forced by attempts to provide a scriptural basis for the unscriptural "pre-tribulation rapture," destroys the integrity and consistency of the Messianic redemption, of the Kingdom of God. This unscriptural division causes the saved Gentiles to lose their inheritance in the Kingdom of God. It removes the Gentiles who receive Christ from the promises of the Hebrew Prophets.

To be continued.